Sunday, 31 October 2010

My week long carp fishing trip to Acton Burnell seems like yesterday, I can’t believe we are at the end of October 2010 already!. I haven’t written anything new since my trip to Acton back in April, this has mainly been due to a lack of time and a lack of fishing I can actually write about. Being in a publicity shy carp syndicate has it’s advantages when it comes to fishing but it certainly doesn’t help when you are supposed to be writing a carp blog!.Just to bring my fishing up to date a little, I’ve had a fabulous year so far banking no fewer than 15 x 20’s up to 34lb+ (the common I had from Acton Burnell), most have come from the syndicate but a couple have come from a north west club water, one came from my annual weekend at Sandhurst Lake on the Yateley complex.

The Sandhurst trip was memorable for all the wrong reasons, I had a complete disaster of a trip!. Somehow I managed to loose 4 fish on the bounce, two on the Saturday daytime were missed runs, one in the early hours of Sunday morning to a hook pull and a fourth found a snag when I played it in at range from peg 10. The fish that found a snag was particularly hard to take because I knew it was a right lump. Despite the 4 losses I still left Sandhurst feeling like I’d just scored the winning goal in the cup final. I was due off the lake at 3pm on Sunday afternoon, after 4 missed chances my confidence was rock bottom, I was staring at my first ever Sandhurst blank and I wasn’t very happy!. That weekend had been one of the coldest on record in May, a freak North Easterly wind kept the temperatures bitterly cold, I believe the day time high was just 6 degrees!. I’d travelled to Sandhurst with absolutely no cold weather gear, I just had a t-shirt and a fleece jacket, both of which were useless against the biting Easterly wind. A few of the lads lent me a couple of fleece hoodies and these helped but I still had to spend most of the trip tucked up in my sleeping bag just to keep warm.

Because of the need to keep out of the wind I’d left packing the bivvy until the last minutes before leaving and it was whilst I was packing this item of tackle away that one of the delkims signalled one final run, it was a screamer too and I quickly made contact with another Sandhurst carp. After the rotten luck I’d had all weekend I can tell you my heart was in my mouth for the duration of the fight. Even under the rod tip I was praying the carp wouldn’t escape, thankfully it didn’t!. I actually had to unpack my scales and camera in order to weigh and photograph the fish. It wasn’t massive by Sandhurst standards, a scraper 20 common weighing 20lb 6oz. It was so close to packing up time I didn’t even recast the rod, I simply packed it into the holdall and carried on packing up. 20 minutes later I was pulling out of the car park still with a massive grin on my face, a small fish that common may have been but it saved me a blank and a last minute winner is always a sweet moment in carp fishing.

20lb 6oz Common Carp from Cemex Sandhurst Lake

Apart from Sandhurst and Acton, the only other time I’ve left the syndicate was for a handful of short sessions on a famous north west club water in mid October. I love this type of hit and run carp fishing, keeping the sessions short and working hard to get your baits under a carp’s nose. These were the tactics I used the other week and they worked a treat. In 5 trips I banked 3 fish, another two 20’s and a high double was a cracking result for a water were 5 fish per year is the norm!.

22lb 10oz Mirror Carp from a Famous North West Carp Water

Switching to short sessions mid October has brought an end to my night fishing for 2010 and I’m back to the short sessions I usually do throughout the winter. I’ve written this piece to update the blog a little and to say I’ll be writing some more about my winter carping this year. My writing won’t be as prolific as it was in previous years but there will be some more new material coming during December and January as I take a break from syndicate life.

Nothing beats Shimano for Reels

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